Description

I voided a transaction - why does my customer still see the charge in their bank account?

Resolution

Broadly speaking, there are two steps to charging a credit card:

1. First, the transaction is authorized, which puts a hold on the funds in the customer's account.
2. Second, the transaction is settled (usually in a batch), which finalizes the transaction and begins the process of moving the funds from the cardholder to a Merchant. An authorization expires if it is not settled; the exact length of time that authorization(s) can remain unsettled is up to the bank that issued the credit card, but usually lasts no longer than 7-calendar days.

Voiding a transaction removes it from your open batch, ensuring that it will never be settled. It does not, however, remove the initial authorization. This means that the cardholder will see a pending charge for a period of time after the transaction was voided, the length of which depends on their particular bank's policies.

Note: If you attempt to process a transaction, and it is declined due to Address Verification Service (AVS) Failure; or, Card Verification Value (CVV) Failure, the transaction may have been auto-voided instead. This is when a transaction is initially approved by the customer's bank, then voided since the AVS, or CVV message returned by the customer's bank did not meet the Risk requirements set by the Merchant in their Virtual Terminal.

Some banks may be willing to expedite the release of held funds. Send your customer a receipt of the transaction that shows the original approval code, the amount of the authorization, and an indication that it was voided. They should then contact their bank and explain the situation. In many cases, the bank will be willing to drop the authorization immediately out of pending status.

For further information on Address Verification Service (AVS) Failure, please refer to this article link Decline: AVS Failure

If you have questions or require additional information, please contact us and we will be in touch with you shortly.